Investing.com - The dollar slid to two-week lows against the yen on Monday as disappointing Chinese manufacturing data and escalating conflict in Ukraine weighed on market sentiment, bolstering safe haven demand.
USD/JPY hit session lows of 101.87, the weakest since April 16 and was last down 0.21% to 101.96.
The drop in the dollar came after the final reading of China’s HSBC manufacturing purchasing managers’ index came in at 48.1, down from a preliminary estimate of 48.3 and missing forecasts for an uptick to 48.4. A reading below 50 indicates a contraction.
The weak data added to concerns that an economic slowdown in the world’s second-largest economy is deepening.
The dollar was already under pressure after giving up gains late Friday sparked by a far stronger-than-forecast U.S. jobs report.
The dollar initially strengthened after official data showed that the U.S. economy added 288,000 jobs in April, well above expectations for jobs growth of 210,000, while the unemployment rate dropped to a five-and-a-half year low of 6.3%.
However, the report also showed that the labor force participation rate, which measures the proportion of people either working or looking for work, fell and wage growth weakened.
Investors were also eying events in Ukraine, after conflict between the government and pro-Russian separatists grew more widespread over the weekend.
The euro was steady against the dollar, with EUR/USD trading at 1.3871, not far from the three-week peak of 1.3888 reached last Thursday, while GBP/USD was almost unchanged at 1.6868.
Trade was expected to remain subdued on Monday, with markets in the U.K. closed for a public holiday.
Elsewhere, USD/CHF was trading at 0.8778.
The Australian dollar slipped lower after the weak Chinese data and a lackluster domestic economic report, with AUD/USD down 0.13% to 0.9264. Earlier Monday, official data showed that Australian building permits dropped unexpectedly in March.
NZD/USD was almost unchanged at 0.8667, while USD/CAD was trading at 109.72.
The US Dollar Index, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of six other major currencies, was at 79.56, holding just above the three-week low of 79.48 struck earlier in the session.